Being in a customer-driven industry such as banking and financial services, many are suiting up in response to the ever evolving preference of consumers. But, they’re finding out that it’s not as simple as making sure they’re up-to-date with the latest arsenal of digital ammunition.

Technology will always be a disruptor but it all boils down to how banks learn to leverage off it, and that really shows whether their innovative plans will bear fruit.

For 2017, improving customer service seems to be the key point for the banking industry within Malaysia. Banks are aiming for efficiency, reliability, provide real-time and on-demand services, and ensure security of information and data; all for the fundamental concept of customer satisfaction.

In order to meet these challenges and expectations, banks are ensuring that they’re equipped with systems that could support this strategic direction.

Here are some innovative ways they’re greeting the digitisation of banking in 2017.

1) Incorporation Of Better Technology.

With the rapid development of systems and technology, banks face the task of keeping up-to-date and thinking of ways to make use of said technology for the betterment of their customer service.

Lessening the hassle of any experience for their customers should be a top priority.

Banks everywhere should be coming up with methods on how to reduce the number of people flowing in and out of bank outlets to help save time and provide efficient solutions that can ease any process.

Maybank incorporated this with their debit card kiosk that helps replace customers’ old ones for a new one without needing to have any staff on standby.

Besides that, cashless services are beginning to become the new trend as banks are finding out ways to give this easy experience to Malaysians.

Maybank also had their own initiative earlier this year with Maybank Pay and in December, they rolled out Maybank Samsung Pay which allows users to pay with their Samsung mobile at any card terminal around the world where Samsung Pay is made available.

2) More Online Services Made Ready.

With the digital era looming before us, we’re moving onto a mobile generation.

People wish to have less reliance on actual bank outlets, which is something banks have realised themselves. People increasingly prefer to use mobile devices with the trend coming over from the west.

To cater to this, more online services should be made readily available for customers to easily access their service whenever and wherever.

RHB Bank came out with RHB Pay Anyone earlier this year that allows them to transfer money to individuals using just mobile numbers, email or Facebook accounts through their revamped mobile app, which saves people the hassle of asking for bank account numbers.

3) Emphasis On A Tighter Security.

Security is a fine and fragile issue where every step regarding it should be taken with caution to ensure no form of fraud or mistakes could happen when dealing with transactions.

Image Credit: thestar.com.my

A step that many countries have taken is a PIN & Pay system where payment for purchases by credit or debit card don’t require signatures. Instead, card holders will have to key in their PIN number to facilitate the payment instead, making it more secure.

Many major banks in Malaysia are gearing up to implement this feature, with most of them stating it’ll start beginning of next year. They are urging their customers to quickly switch their debit cards to have this option made available to them from 2017.

This feature is an industry-wide initiative targeted at further enhancing the security of cards against unauthorised transactions as well as providing greater convenience when making payments at point of sales.

4) Smoother Online Transactions.

As online banking continues to grow, banks need to prepare for the sheer volume of transactions that happen on a daily basis.

Research done by the banking industry has shown that there’s been a significant rise in credit card spending due to millennials choosing online shopping nowadays. Understandably, this could provide a few hiccups for bank systems during peak hours due to the large amount of transactions happening at once.

Maybank Head of Cards & Wealth, B Ravintharan extended Maybank’s apologies for the inconvenience caused by the technical problems which affected credit and debit card payments on the day of the incident.

“We do acknowledge that many of our cardholders encountered difficulties in making payments during that time, and we have made every effort to regularise their accounts which we completed within one week,” he said.